The Olympic Games men’s football tournament continues over the weekend and on the 25th of July we have a meeting between Egypt and Argentina at the Sapporo Dome, in Japan.
This is a match in Group C of the competition and Egypt will begin the second round of fixtures in third place with a point while Argentina are sitting bottom of the group, yet to get off the mark.
Egypt started the Olympic Games with a tough fixture against Spain. The Egyptians defended well against a talented Spanish team including the likes of Dani Olmo, Marco Asensio, Mikel Oyarzabal, Pedri, Eric García, Pau Torres, and Unai Simón, many of which featured for their country at the European Championships.
Egypt came into this tournament on the back of an undefeated run of 8 matches at under 23 level. They have defeated Mali, Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa, Ivory Coast, and Brazil since November 2019, which is a strong record.
Egypt last featured at the Olympic Games in 2012 and they reached the quarter final of the competition in London. They finished second in their group behind Brazil but Belarus and New Zealand proved to be weaker opposition than they are likely to face against Argentina in this game.
Argentina toasted the success of the national team at the Copa America. They defeated Brazil 1-0 in the final of the competition to hand the nation their first international success for many years.
However, things did not go according to plan in the first fixture at the Olympic Games as Argentina were shocked by Australia. Having fallen a goal behind in the 14th minute, Argentina could not breakdown the Australian defence and were caught out in the final minute of the match to lose 2-0.
That result places the Argentina team under huge pressure going into this game and they know they must record a positive result to have a good chance of qualifying for the quarter final.
The Argentina under 23 team played two friendly matches prior to the Olympic Games and won both. They defeated Denmark 2-1 and beat Saudi Arabia 2-0.
You must go back to 2008 to find the last time Argentina progressed beyond the group stage at the Olympic Games and they went on to win the tournament, having also picked up the gold medal four years earlier.
Team news and Egypt are likely to go with the same starting XI from the match against Spain. The only change could see Ibrahim Adel come into the attack at the expense of Taher Mohamed.
Argentina could make several changes following the lose against Australia. Francisco Ortega is suspended following his red card and Ezequiel Ponce, Marcelo Herrera, Tomas Belmonte, and Martin Payero could all start.